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With all bets off, Davies cashes in
PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- Normally, Laura Davies is quick to put her money where her mouth is. On Saturday Davies thought Point Given was an absolute lock to win the Belmont Stakes. The roulette-wheel-spinning dice-thrower didn't wager a dime, however, and the thoroughbred won easily by 12 1/4 lengths. On Sunday the Brit carried a five-shot lead into the final round of the Wegman's Rochester International, but she wasn't betting on herself to pull off a victory. At the beginning of the week when she heard that the odds of her winning were quite long, she balked.
"My brother, Tony, called and said I was 66-1 to win this week and asked if he should put a few dollars down," Davies said. "I told him, with the way I was playing, not to waste his money." Davies ended up taking the $150,000 first-place prize, but had valid reasons for being so pessimistic. This season, Davies, the winner of, after Sunday, 61 events worldwide, hasn't gone to the pay window much. In her last seven events, before beating Maria Hjorth and Wendy Ward by three shots Sunday, Davies had missed the cut five times and her confidence had hit an all-time low. At the Kathy Ireland Championship in late April, the defending champion looked like a weekend duffer, shooting 75-72 to miss the cut. Earlier that week, after hitting a barrage of tops, hooks and shanks in a Tuesday shootout, she turned to JoAnne Carner and said, "I'm sorry but you picked the wrong partner." "It's devastating stuff, really, because I've always been a player in contention," Davies said. "I was just striking the ball poorly, and I've never struck it that badly. You start feeling like you are rubbish, and I was rubbish." And even though she fired a 4-under 68 in the first round at Rochester, she still didn't feel as if she was top-of-the-heap. "I'm just desperate to shoot a good round," Davies said Thursday. "I'll probably shoot 78 and miss the cut tomorrow or something, but at least I played well [in the first round]." Davies not only made the cut, but shot her second consecutive 68. Still, that didn't change her outlook. "My problem is that I stand on the tee and look at trouble instead of looking at the middle of the fairway," Davies said before the third round. "So, I'm not expecting too much this weekend because I know what I'm thinking and where I'm looking." One of her followers, Brandie Burton, wasn't buying into this melancholia. She thought Davies was just trying to lower her own expectations using gloom. "It's called reverse psychology," Burton said. "She's always been a little bit negative, maybe not as much as she has been the last few days. If I were to think like that, I'd be doing something else, but everybody's different. If that's what works for her, then that's fine." After firing her third straight sub-70 round, a 69 on Saturday, Davies finally started thinking she had a chance to grab her first LPGA victory in more than a year. A five-shot lead didn't hurt matters, either. "[Saturday] was a big day. I was thinking I would play horribly but, as it turned out, I have a very good lead to go home with," Davies said. "I'm not thinking don't blow it, but I am thinking about winning." Davies admitted she wouldn't have been nearly as optimistic if she hadn't kept the headcover on her driver, hadn't changed the shafts on her irons, or if Annika Sorenstam or Karrie Webb had been in the field. During the first three rounds Davies hit her driver a total of three times. Relying on a diet of 3-irons off the tee, Davies preferred playing her second shots from the short grass to landing 50 yards farther and possibly in the trees. She feared the outcome might have been different had she hit driver all day. "I would have missed the cut and been sitting in my armchair at home in England," said Davies. A week ago, Davies was even struggling to hit her 3-iron straight. Last week, her mother, Rita -- who Davies says knows nothing about golf -- told her daughter that the problem must be the clubs. So, on Tuesday, Davies switched her shafts back to Graphite from steel, which she had gone to earlier in the year, and, all of sudden, her game went in the tank. "My normal shot is a low draw, but with the steel shafts [I] wasn't seeing that shot," Davies said. "On Tuesday I had Paul in the repair trailer change them and suddenly my low draw was back, and so was my confidence." Also working in Davies' favor was that nine out of the top 10 LPGA players had decided to take the week off. While her 9-under-par performance looked like the Davies of old, she said that showing wouldn't have been good enough if Webb or Sorenstam had showed up. "If they were here, they would have been at 12- or 15-under and then I would have been in third or fourth," Davies said. "You know, their loss is my gain. Right now I'm glad they weren't here." Davies' victory continues the international trend on the LPGA Tour this year. In the first 17 events of 2001, foreign players have won 15. Though lately she's known what it's like to struggle, Davies says it's nice to see tables being turned. "I think it is good and I like it. It's nice to see the Americans struggle at anything," said Davies, who, with her victory Sunday, moves to within just two wins of gaining automatic entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame. "I don't think it makes any difference because we are all on the same tour. The best players in the world are competing -- not just Americans, who are traditionally the best in women's golf, but, all of a sudden, are not." Tom Hanson, a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated's Golf Plus section,
is a longtime caddie on the LPGA Tour. Click here
to send him a question or comment.
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